Publicly held companies paid on average $3.3 million in total audit fees for fiscal year 2010, an increase of two percent from the prior fiscal year, according to a new report from Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF), the research affiliate of Financial Executives International.

The nearly 250 executives surveyed cited internal audit staff work, and changes in company operations as some of their primary reasons for the difference in fees.

After three consecutive years of decline, audit fees as a percentage of revenue of Independent Auditors increased slightly in 2009, points out a new comprehensive study for Audit Analytics.

However, the research firm says that as with non-audit fees, the uptick is due to a decrease in revenues instead of an increase in fees.  It stresses the fees declined despite the extra work demanded of independent auditors during the same period when more and more companies were required to obtain a auditor attestations required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Submitted by Caleb Newquist, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

It looks like audit fees are stabilizing.

The 150 publicly-held companies responding to a recent survey paid an average of $4.8 million in audit fees in 2009, down 2.4 percent from the total shelled out by these respondents the prior fiscal year.